O, onn, furze.

The bird is airdhirdeog, the lapwing; the

colour odhar, dun; the date, that of the vernal equinox. The
number is four

OB, a creek, shallow pool, harbour, bay; derived from ON.

hop, a small land-locked bay, the Scot. hope and the AS. hop,
a valley.

OB, OBACH, OBADH, OBAIDH, a charm, a spell, an incantation;

see ubag. This word also implies refusal, denial, shunning or
rejection. See next.

OBAG, witch. This is a diminutive of the above word. The

word is also used as “a spell.” a falcon; hurry, confusion,
arbruptness. Obagag, an unimportant witch.

OBAIR, obs., a confluence (of streams, roads etc.) The

pronunciation “aber” has led to the form Aber- as seen in
modern Gaelic place names, as Aberfoyle, Scotland. This
word probably relates to ob. Water taken from a confluence
was considered to have magical properties.

OBAIR PHEALLAIDH, one of the urusig tribe of river spirits.

This name has been anglicized as Aberfeldy. This sprite has
a wide geographic range. His footprint, Caslorg Phellaidh, is
seen in stone at Glen Lyon. The wild burn of Inbhir-inncoin
was his as was the cataract known as Eas Pheallaidh.

O-BREAS-IL, HY BREASIL, I-BRAZIL, "o", she (the) "y", "i",

"hi", "hy", abbreviations for high above the sea or innis, an
island; perhaps also iar, west; bras, bold, active, rash; OIr.
bras, great, after the parsimonious King Breas, who was,
briefly high-king of Ireland in the time of the Tuatha daoine.
The ending il indicates "diversity," thus references to "the
multi-coloured land." See Breas, Breasil.

OBALTAS, an omen. Related to obaidh. See ubag.

OCHAIN, ACÉIN, “Moaner,” “Alas!;” literally, och ón, alas

this! The enchanted shield of Conchobhar mac Nessa, king
of Ulster. Whenever its carrier was endangered it moaned
and was answered by the waves of the ocean. It was carried
by Fiachra, Conchobhar’s son, and moaned when he led the
attack on the Red Branch Hostel. This brought the king to
his rescue.

OCHDAMH, eighth; ochd, eight. Like many great festivals

elsewhere, the Beltane embraced an octave of time, from
the first to the eighth of May. The Scots considered it lucky
to be born between “the two Beltanes (the first and last
day),” saying that those who were would have “skills over
man or beast.”

O’CRONICERT, “Grandson of the Crazy Little Man.” A

traveller to the Otherworld. By the time of King Brian mac
Cenneidigh (see separate note), the fraternity of bards had
degenerated into a “Sturdy Strolling Brotherhood of
Beggars,” who followed the old tradition of “visiting”
prominent Irishmen.

They spent a year and a day with a knight named

O’cronicert before he decided to complain to Brian. At
Brian’s court he noted that the visitors had “eaten all my
foodstuffs and made a poor man of me.” Seeing that this
was the case, the king promised his visitor a hundred cows,
and O’cronicert got another hundred by complimenting the
queen. He then went a’roving hoping to add to his assets.

In a wooded region (forests are seen as entrances to

the Otherworld) his dog started a deer, which shape-
changed into a woman who called out for the animal to be
made to heel. O’cronicert said he would do this if the fay-
woman promised to marry him. She agreed on three
conditions: that he should not invite company to dinner
without asking in advance; that he would not mention that
she was a shape-changer, and that she would not be left in
the company of a single man while he was away from home.
These taboos seemed nominal so the Irishman agreed. The
hand-fasting was completed in the maiden’s ramshackle
sheiling in the woods, and afterwards a rustic bed was laid
and the two engaged in sex.

In the morning, O’cronicert was surprised to find that

he had become attached to a sovereign lady. He therefore
found himself stretched out an a golden bed and outside
heard the sounds of a host of farm animals. Back in good
circumstances, the Irishman man now spent his time
hunting with his dogs and before long wished to make
display of his wealth in front of Brian ard-righ.
Unfortunately, he neglected to tell his wife of his dinner
engagement with the king, and at the meal, when she
objected, he struck her and dismissed her as “a
contemptible deer.” Later the couple opened an outbuilding
for a dance in honour of the king and in the late evening, the
dance-hall became vacated except for O’cronicert, his wife,
and Cian mac Loy. The unwary husband now left the room to
take the air, and with the third vow broken, the deer-
woman became a huge mare, which sprang through the room
and kicked mac Loy breaking his thigh.

With one last fit of malevolence she burst through the

gates of the palace and disappeared. In the morning,
O’cronicert found that his grand home had become a hovel
without sheep or cattle, and the king and his court were
settled on straw rather than within golden beds. As for
Cian, he was sent to Innnistruck and the healers, but they
seemed incapable of dealing with his injury. One morning
while he was there, a giant landed on the beach and
introduced himself as Aod-an-athair. He was unable to
restore O’cronicert to his former position but was able to
heal mac Loy’s broken thigh since he had studied medicine
while on imrama in the western lands beyond the Atlantic.
Mhorrigan is the prototype of this kind.

OCTRIALLACH. The son of Indech, the Fomorian warrior who

killed Ogma. In the course of battle he discovered that the
Tuatha daoine were reviving their dead in the Cauldron of
the Deep. He led some compatriots to the place where it
was located and covered it with earth creating “The Cairn
of Octriallach.”

ODRAS. The daughter of Odarnatan, a keep of the hostel of

Buchat Bussach in Ireland. She tended the cow herds. The
goddess Mhorrigan mated one of her bulls with a cow from
this herd, and then enticed the animal into the Cave of
Cruachan. Attempting to regain the animal Odras followed
but the deity enchanted her with son and turned her into a
pool of water in the wood known as Falga.

OENGHUS. An alternate form for the god Aonghas or Angus

Og.

OES. An alternate spelling of aes, which, see.

OFRAIDEACH, offerer of a sacrifice, druidical priest. See

next.

OFRAIL, offering. Said from Lat. offerendum. A gift made to

the gods or a spirit.

OG, youth, a young man, a young child, youthful, ogalachd,

the season of youth, ogh, obs. pure, sincere, whole, entire;
oghachd, virginity.

OGE-MAGAN, literally, the youthful toad, or the youthful

squatting beast; the lowland Hogmanay, also termed
Huggeramonie Night. Also seen as Huggeranonie. The root of
magan is màg, a paw (of a beast) a hand, a lazy bed, a ridge
of tilled land ready for seed. EIr. man, hand, the Lat. manus.
The Scand. maig comes from the Gaelic. Note also magadh,
mocking; magaid, a whim; magaire, testicles, from the EIr.
magar, stones. The ultimate root is perhaps meg, great,
powerful, capable of increase, and confers with the goddess
Mhorrigan who is nicknamed Maag Molluch, the “Powerful
Hairy One.”

Some wordsmiths give the word as comprised of Oge-

maidne., which Dr. George Henderson translates it as having
reference to a “new morning.” but it can equally well have
reference to a “new child.” The derivation of the word is
unsettled. our version being that suggested and supported
by Alexander Macbain. This word probably derives from the
Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse tongues, and survives in words
such as "hog", a young sheep, and "hog-shouther", a kind of
horse-play involving jostling using the shoulders. S o m e
prefer the French og gui mener, to “lead to the mistletoe,”
but this seems cumbersome and unlikely. Sir James Murray
said that Hogmanay referred properly, not to the night or
the day, but to the gift given at this time. If so, an
interesting analogy is found in Spain where the New Year’s
Mass is still entitled the Aquinaldo Mass, the word being
Spanish for a New Year’s gift, which the Scottish people
would term a handsel.

A.M. Williams noting the Hogmanay call, “T’is New

Years’s Day, Hogunna!” thinks the call corresponded with the
druidic shout of successful watchers after the new moon. In
the elder days the New Year was not a fixed holiday but one
tied to the coming of this phase of the moon. In the
Shetlands the holiday is termed Newreven.

Better known in Gaelic parts as the Oidhche Calluinn

or “New Year’s Eve,” it was formerly celebrated on the
evening of Samhuinn (October 31) but has been moved to
January 1. This Quarter-Day marked the beginning of each
New Year and consisted of evening and morning rites. In
anticipation houses were decked with holly, hazel and
rowan, plants prescribed to turn away evil spirits. On
Hogmanay Eve, bands of young men carrying axes and ropes
set off for the hills to bring back these plants which were
dried at the fire before being tacked up over and around
entrances and windows. Some members of the household
were designated to bring back water from a holy well or
from one of the “dead and living fords.” In the early morning
the household assembled to drink this magic elixir. The head
of the house then sprinkled the remainder about the rooms,
on beds and on any remaining occupants human or animal.
This managed, the various windows, crevices and keyholes
were all sealed and branches of burning juniper used to
smoke the house. When the fumes were deemed to have put
all evil spirits to rout the doors were opened and “latent
disease was vented in copious expectorations.” The adults
attempted to restore themselves with shots of whisky.
Whoever finished this process early rushed to greet his
neighbour for all dark-haired male first-footers were
entitled to a gift. The fumes washed away, the family had
breakfast.

All these rites were also carried out in the cattle

sheds if they happened to be separate from the farmstead.
Before dawn the maidens rushed away to the local holy well
eager to draw the first pail of water for the New Year. In
the Highlands this pailful was termed the Cream of the
North, and in the Borders, the Flower O’ The Well. It was
claimed that the first lass to “cream the well” after
midnight but before dawn would marry a desirable young
man before the year was out. The lucky one always used
some of her “cream” to wash out her dairy utensils, giving
the remainder to the cows. This was understood to secure
the house against witchcraft and guarantee a supply of milk
and cream in the coming year. See tobar, for additional
details of this well-rite.

In sea-girt regions the men competed to bring back

the first load of seaweed from the shore. The one who
succeeded piled up a little at each door and cast the
remainder over his fields thus guaranteeing prosperous
farming and fishing. In the Highlands the Hogmanay Boys
whipped one another with holly, believing that every drop of
blood represented a year through which they would live. In
some households the calluin cabag or Hogmanay Cheese was
placed under the pillow before sleep so that one might
“dream on it.” Men sometimes carried this strange holed
artifact to the roof, and peered through it down the chimney
hole expecting to catch sight of a future spouse. The cheese
was afterwards set aside as a good-luck amulet.

Before going to bed on Hogmanay Night, the man of the

house placed a silver coin on his stoop. If it was still there
in the morning good luck was forecast, but if missing
poverty lay ahead. In some places the “rist,” or fire, was
covered with ash as the last act of the day. In the morning
the ash was searched for supernatural footprints and if any
pointed toward the doorway a family member was expected
to die before the year was complete. If the fire burned
vigorously on the Hogmanay Day good things were
prognosticated; if a live coal rolled from the hearth it was
thought that a family member would go journeying.

To give away fire or kindling on this day was to give

away the luck of the house (see Maigh for a similar belief),
and this disaster could only be averted by throwing burning
peat into a pail of water. Nothing was put out, or taken in on
Hogmanay. The rise of a red sun on this morning was said to
indicate strife in the coming year.

This holiday is mentioned in the ON. Heimskringla

where we are told that King Hacon, having conquered
heathen Norway, attempted to bring it to Christ: “He made it
a law that they should keep the Yule at the same time as
Christian men, where formerly the first night of Yule was
hogamanay night, which is to say midwinter night, when the
Yule followed for three days and nights.” Erling Monsen, a
recent editor of this work, suggests that this was the
holiday that the Anglo-Saxons termed höggu nott “and it is
supposed to take its name from hogging or hewing down
cattle before the festival. Note that the dark elfs of
Scandinavia were sometimes termed the hoggemaundr or
“mound-dwellers.” The Hogmanay was also termed Dar-na-
coille, which see. See also Oichche na Calluin
OGLUIDH, gloomy, awful, bashful, sometimes said based on
the ON. uggligr, fearful, the Eng. ugly, but seems to relate to
Og-luigh, the old sun-god Lugh.

OGLUN, tumult, riotous behaviour, similar to the Norse

uggligr and the English ugly. The result, if not the aim, of
rites at the Quarter-Days. In lowland Scotland any of these
times might be termed the “Daft Days."

OGHMA, OGMA MAC ELATHU. His Gaullish counterpart was

Ogmios. Often described as "the Hercules of Gaelic
mythology." A son of the Dagda he was th patron of
politicians and speech-makers, the inventor of the cryptic
language and alphabet known as oghum. "Eloquence was
valued as highly as bravery in battle and could sometimes
stay the hand of the most berserkly inspired fighter." Ogma
may very well be a form of Aonghas Óg, for he is also
represented in Gaelic as Ogma grian-aineach, “an out-being
with a sunny countenance.” Further og by itself confers
with the more modern uibe, a mass or lump, a “ball” of
matter, and hence the “sun.”

This god was known to the people of Bitannius Major

(England) as Ogmia, and fragments of pottery bearing his
picture and name have been recovered from archaeological
digs at Richborough. These show a figure with long curly
hair, with sun rays radiating from his head. He also holds a
whip identified in Latin as that of Sol Invictus, the
“Unconquerable Sun.”

Aside from being a warrior, Ogma was known for role

in conducting souls to the Otherworld. He is usually listed
as the god of eloquence and literature, in which case he is
referred to as Ogma cermait, the “honeymouthed.” His
powers of persuasion were such that it was sometimes said
that he chained listeners to him with a golden fetters
running from his tongue. He is credited with the invention
of the Ogham, which was at once a cryptic druidic language
and a means of magically embedding sounds on paper, wood
or stone.

The children of Ogma are variously given: It was

sometimes said that he married Étain , a daughter of the god
of medicine Diancécht. If so, there offspring are given as
Tuireann and Cairbre . But mac Cécht, mac Cumhail and mac
Gréine are also listed as his offspring. Ogma passed through
the second Battle of Magh Tuireadh and in it slew the giant
named Indech, the Fomorian son of the prime goddess Domnu.
After the battle he claimed the sword called Orna which had
been held by the Fomorian king named Tethra. It had the
capacity to speak, recounting all the killings it has
performed. With the passing of the elder gods of the earth
Ogma is supposed to have retired into side Airceltrai.
Others say he was killed by his brother Aonghas Og to
avenge an adultery.

OGHUM, OGHAM, obs. the "writing" and "cryptic speech" given

to men by Ogma, a son of the Dagda and king of the Daoine
sidh. Also the occult sciences. EIr. ogum from Ogma mac
Elathan, the last word “Knowledge.” The Gaullish Ogmios,
conferring with Hercules, the classical god of eloquence.
Oidheam, having secret meaning, properly oigheam. The
Book of Ballymote notes that the alphabet originated in
Hibernia “in the time of Breas, the son of Elathan, when he
was King of all Ireland. The giver of the signs was Ogma,
the son of Elathan, a brother to Breas...” Even then it was
said to be “a secret speech for the learned, designed to be
kept from the knowledge of the vulgar and the poor.”

Great wooden blocks of Ogham existed in pagan

Ireland, but what remains is now inscribed on stone. It is
also recorded that the characters were carved upon stave
tablets cut from wood, which could be opened like a fan. At
the feast of Samhuinn in 166. King Art gathered his druids
to read the annual books. Two tablets of great antiquity
were placed before Art and as he was reading them, they
slammed irrevocably shut, an omen which was taken as
indicating the end of his kingship. The so-called “Saxon
wands,” may have been based on early Celtic models.
 Often spoken of as "the lore of the trees," since
individual characters were named for trees, the Ogham was
a secret language whose letters were seen as correponding
with different parts of the human body. Thus by a bend of
the hand here, and a flick of the left ring-finger, and a few
other discrete motions men could "magically" communicate
at a distance. "Such dactylogical codes could be quite
useful in the feasting-halls and at night-long banquets
where the protocol of the spoken word had pre-eminence.

The written Ogham character consists of 25 letters,

20 designated by parallel strokes in sets of one to five, all
drawn vertically or obliquely to a horizontal base line.
There are 5 forfeda (extra letters) of more complex form.
Where vowels are found, they are represented as dots below
the vertical lines. The first inscribed stones in Ireland
were found by Edward Lhuyd, a Welshman who visited
Ireland and Scotland in the period 1699-1701. Eventually
his untranslated copies of the inscriptions on 39 stones
were deposited in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin.
Now more available to scholars they were at last
deciphered by Colonel Vallancey, an antiquarian who was
able to relate them to certain key Irish manuscripts on
paper.

The Ogham is believed arranged in sets of eight trees,

viz. the Royal or Gentle Trees; the eight Kiln Trees and the
so-called Spiral suite. The Royal set included the Alder,
Blackthorn, Furze, Hazel, Heath, Ivy, Oak and Vine. The Kiln
or Peasant trees were the Apple, Ash, Birch, Hawthorn,
Holly and Rowan, and the Spirals, the remaining trees in the
full list. It is suspected that the “Shrub Trees,” were late
additions to the alphabet. Each Ogham letter was assigned
a bird totem, a colour and a time period in addition to its
tree symbol. In addition, certain letters had relationships
with compass points and with the equinoxes and solstice
dates. These relationships may be studied by consulting
the individual letters as the appear in this glossary. An
example of the cryptographic significance is seen in the
symbol representing our letter “F.” It is called fearn and is
symbolized by the alder. The bird totem for this letter is
the faelinn or gull, and the day represented by it is
Saturday. Its season was March 19 to April 14, a period
dedicated to Aod, the Day god. The alder produces dyes
useful in colouring clothing. The bark produced a red colour,
symbolizing fire, the maker of daylight.. The flowers were
seen to produce a green symbolizing water, and the twigs
brown, like the earth. Bits of the tree were carried as
proof against storms of fire, water or earth. The tree as a
whole was seen as an aspect of the beach-loving crow
family, sprung from the goddess Mhorrigan. Alder piles
were see as appropriate foundations for sacred buildings
built on flood plains, an example being Winchester Cathedral
built on a-meadow. The year-time indicates the place
where the sun will appear in portions of March and April.

Considering all this interweaving of meanings it is

suspected that the alphabet was used in divination, but all
present systems using Ogham are modern inventions. See
below.

OG-MHIOS, the young month; the month of June, preceded by

the article
an t-. Ir. Meitheamh, month of the young. Marks the
beiginning of summer.

OGSANNA, mysterious, mysticism, secret teachings, sanas,

whispers, secrets (of Oghma). "the knowledge of secret
things imparted in pre-Christian teaching." Munster was the
centre of the ancient Ogham cult. Nine-tenths of all such
inscriptions found have been of Irish provenance. Of these
five-sixths belong to the counties of Kerry, Cork and
Waterford. Slighly more than two dozen inscriptions have
been found in Britain and most of these are in northern
Scotland. It is has been noted that the presence of such
inscriptions falls within Gaelic realms so it is presumed
thet appeared there with the Scottish invasions from
Ireland after the withdrawal of the Romans from Britain.
There is, however, a possibilty that that they pre-date that
time for the Ogham is thought distinctively pagan and is
known to have been banned by the Church. The cult never
had a strong foundation in Ulster and thus its markings are
absent from the west of Scotland which was settled out of
that part of Ireland.

OIBEALAS, the foresight of a person condemned to death,

usually evidenced on the eve of his execution. (see Highland
Clans p.121.)

OIBEAG, UBAG, a spell. Oibid, obs. Submission, obedience.

OICHREO, funeral pyre.

OICHILL OCHNE, the chief lieutenant to Bobd Dearg ard-righ,

the first ruler of the Daoine sidh. He resided under
Cruachan in Roscommon, a hollow hill later given to Mebd.

The sithe were restricted by law to their individual

hollow hills but on the "Rent-paying Days" were permitted
to travel, exchange residences and visit, provided they
moved between one place and another in straight lines.
Oichill Ochne's train has been described: "Seven score
chariots and seven score horsemen was their number. And
of the same colour were all their steeds; they were
speckled; they had silver bridles. There was no person
among them who was not a son of a king or queen. They all
wore green cloaks with crimson pendants to each cloak; and
silver cloak-brooches in all their cloaks; and they wore
kilts with red interweavings and borders and fringes of gold
thread upon them, and pendants of white bronze upon their
leggings or greaves, and shoes with clasps of white bronze;
each of them had a collar of radiant gold (a "torc") around
his neck with a gem worth a newly calved cow set in it.
Each wore a twisted ring of gold around him measuring
thirty ounces of this precious metal. All had white-faced
shields, with ornaments of gold and silver. They carried
flesh-seeking spears, with ribs of gold and silver and red
bronze along the sides; and with rings of silver set upon the
necks of the spears. They had gold hilted swords with the
form of serpents in gold and carbuncles set upon them. They
astonished the whole assembly (the watching Milesians) by
this display. (Story of the Irish Race, p. 11) This act caused
the Milesians to bring down legislation which severely
taxed the side-hill people, and in later years, they did not
appear as a people so self-confidently wealthy.

OIDHCHE BANNAL. Held on January fifth, this festival gives

new meaning to banal. THe Night of the Bane or Bean, was
also known in England as Twelfth Night, Twelfth Tide, or
more recently as Epiphany Eve. The original Gaelic
described a gathering of women, but the current translation
of "bannal" is a crowd or company of either or both sexes. In
English banal means trite or trivial, but the word relates to
Old Norse forms once used to curse or call upon evil helpers
in the supernatural world. In Gaelic, ban is used as a prefix
for woman, suggesting that this might once have been a
feminine ritual. In Greater Britain, this special day time is
Twelfth Night, as it falls on the twelfth night following
Yule.

The Bane is a fitting end for Yuletide, its chief rite

being the presentation of a Twelfth-cake. In Scotland, this
was a rich plum or pound-cake, ornamented and bearing a
"lucky" bean, the recipient of which became either the King
or Queen of the Bane. Mary Beaton was one recipient, having
served as Queen of Twelfth-Tide at Holyrood. F. Marian
McNeill gives her opinion that the black bun, mentioned by
Scott is St. Ronana's Well is a survival of the Bane-cake.
Augustus Bejient has this to say of that festive Yule-cake:

Thou trick shop king! Joy of our gourmand youth

What days thou mark'st and what blood-curdling
nights!
Nights full of shapeless things, hideous, uncouth;
Imp follows ghoul, ghoul follows jinn pell mell;
Fierce raisin devils and gap currant sprites
Hold lightsome leap frog in a pastry hell.

The Scot's Currant Loaf, consisting of flour, sugar,

raisins, orange peel, mixed spices, black pepper, ginger,
cream of tartar, soda, butter milk,baking-powder, butter
and water is said to be a "poor relation of the Black Bun,
which it replaces at the Hogamanay or Night of the Bean
where expense is a consideration. In addition to use at
these festivals, the Bun is appropriate fare for Samhainn. In
the earliest times, the monarch of Bane was probably
selected at the beginning of Yule through the medium of the
carline or black-bean, which was drawn by lot or hidden in a
food-stuff.

In Celtic France, the king is proclaimed on the first

Sunday in December and reigns until the morning of Twelfth
Day. At that time, he is marched in "a procession of great
pomp, wearing his crown and blue mantle (after the fashion
of the god Odin), and carrying a sceptre. After high mass in
the parish church, the king would visit the bishop, the
mayor and the magistrates, collecting money for a "royal"
banquet, which took place in the evening and ended with a
dance."

While this "Christian" king was in no danger, the

entire Yule was once considered a hazardous time, the final
night being especially one of risk and the proper time for
exorcizing ghosts, witches and other powers of darkness. In
general, the latter act was accomplished with much noise-
making using horns, whips and bells. Torches were lighted
and carried about since light was known to repel the dark
and its ilk. Bonfires were as much a part of Twelfth Night
as the Samhainn or Yule Eve. In some parts of Scotland, the
creation of the flame was definitely a fertility rite,
Victorian tenant-farmers explaining that the crops grew in
proportion to the light which could be provided when
burning hay was tossed into the air.

The King of Bane was sometimes called the Bishop of

Fools or Merry Andrew in medieval Scotland. Elsewhere in
Britain, he was the Abbott of Unreason, the Lord of Misrule
or the Yule Fool, the titular head of all the daft-days. In
this he resembles the Roman King of Saturnalia, whose
festivities occupied these same twelve days. The King of
Bane was no mere harlequin, having charge of all
preparations relating to food and entertainment of the
nobility. He also had real power, being able to make
demands of royalty. When he overstepped true reason, as
occasionally happened, he was not invited to a return
engagement. In pagan times, his power was somewhat
circumscribed, since he was chosen by the "black bean" to
be a scapegoat, whose death ritually removed all the ills of
the land. For his brief "reign" he was allowed great
liberties which ended after twelve days with a knife at the
throat, a place in the bonfire or an appointment with the
gallows-tree.

In this, the "king" followed a long tradition of

sacrificing god-spirits, or their human representatives, for
the general good of the community. In more humane times,
the position of the king or queen was still determined by
lot, but his ashes were not spread on the field along with
the Yule log. Epiphany, following Twelfth-tide Eve, on
January sixth, was another deliberate attempt to confound
the interests of the new God with that of older gods. It was
generally said that this date honoured the coming of the
Magi to visit Jesus at Bethlehem. A few claimed that it
commemorated the first appearance of the star of the Magi,
symbolizing the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles.

OIDHCHE-BEALTAINE, BEALLTAIN, Beltane-Night. The first

form given above is Irish Gaelic, the second, Scottish. The
Beltane was celebrated on the last evening of the month
called Giblean (the gutted or unfilled one), when food
supplies were usually thin. This was the last day of winter
and the final day of the rule of the Cailleach Bheur. With
the exception of the Samhainn, all the fire-feasts of the
year were subservient to the Beltane, which is a decidedly
Celtic celebration. The Bealltain recognized the beal, bel,
or baal. The bal, or baile (plural balim) was a Gaelic name
sometimes used to refer to the gods collectively, but it also
particularly distinguished sun-agricultural deities.
 Often, the word was prefixed to a place-name. A few
examples are: Bail 'an-luig, or Ballinluig, which translates
as "baile" or place of the sun-god Lugh; and Baile-
Chlorichride, now called Piltorchy, both located in
Perthshire. Then there is Baile-nan-cailleach, which is now
called Nun-town and is in Benbecula. The Gaelic form
emerges as, the place of the old woman or the Winter Hag.
The god is not always exactly identified, thus Balmoral, the
place of the great god; Balmain, the chief hand of the god;
Baldoon, the brown god. The gods are also remembered in
places such as Belford, Bell and Belton. The nature of these
gods is implicit in language. The Gaelic "beul" means a
narrow pass between the mountains or a mouth (and thus a
swallower of people as well as a gateway to better things).
The similar word "bal" identifies a ball or a dance, and this
was traditionally one of the rites of Beltane. All of these,
relate to the English "bald", that is stripped, and "beal",
which means to gather, to swell, to come to a head and
burst (as a bud or a pimple). The Old English term "bealche"
(belch) arises from this root as does the word "bell", a
device used to create an assembly.

The name of the baal who superintended the Beltane

probably varied locally but in the most antique format, he
was probably the Norse Orlog or Alfadur, who is perhaps
represented by the Welsh god Nur and the Gaelic Ner or
Nathair (serpent). In both Celtic languages, the shortened
forms also serve as a negation suggesting that this elder
god was not without failings. The Scottish Nathair, a name
"best left unsaid", is a two part persona, which translates
as the high god who is not the father, possibly
distinguishing him from the Scandinavian Allfather. It is
possible that these slighting connotations were suggested
by the early Christians. Almost as dangerous as the Ner
were the elementals, or elder-gods, who were direct agents
of the Creator. Present before time, the god-spirits of fire,
water, and air combined efforts to create the goddess the
Anglo-Saxons called Urth (earth) and her domain, Middle
Earth. The senior spirit was Aod or Kai, the keeper of
subterranean fires.
 The lord of the air was in some places called Wyn and
in others Kari. Lir, or Llyr, was the immortal god-spirit of
the waters. All are similar in their lack of a Christian
name and in having control over a single department in
nature. The old gods of nature are remembered in Scottish
names such as Mackay (son of Aod) and Machugh, the Irish
equivalent. Learmouth and Leary attach to Lir, the sea god,
and Windram, Wingate, Winton and Winters to Wyn. The
individual god-spirit who was central to Beltane worship
may nave been Aod, who the Welsh called Hu, since the
month which starts with this fire festival is the Ceitean, or
fire-gathering month.

This mythical individual came to Britain from the

"Summer Country" or Near East "just after the Great Flood
had left the land." Physically, his most interesting
attributes were his far-sight or telescopic vision, and a
very high body temperature, which boiled away falling rain
and ocean-water. Because of this he was able to live
beneath the sea for periods approaching seven days and
seven nights, and in winter served as a source of warmth to
his people. As this sun-god travelled across Europe, he
gathered adherents in Germany, particularly in the province
now called Hesse, where he was worshipped as Heus (an
equivalent of the English Hugh and the Gaelic Huis). He was
also a major deity in France and in the Cumric lands where
he was called Duw or Hu. The former word is still in that
country used to identify the Christian god, who supplanted
him.

The Scandinavians called him Odin and Gautr. Among

the Finns, his equivalent was the musician-wizard called
Wainoemoinen. All are unquestionably gods of fire,
agriculture and war, although the emphasis might vary from
one country to another. It was Aod or Hu who taught the
aboriginals of Scotland, Ireland, Wales and England the "arts
of civilized life, to build comfortable houses, to sow grain
and reap, to tame the buffalo and the bison, and turn their
mighty strength to profitable account, to construct boats
with wicker and the skins of animals. to drain pools and
morasses, to cut down forests, cultivate the vine and
encourage bees, make wine and mead, frame lutes and fifes
and play upon them, compose rhymes and verses, fuse
minerals and form them into various instruments and
weapons, and to move in masses against their enemies."

When the god-spirit first came to Britain "at the head

of an immense multitude of his countrymen", who he led out
of the "summer-country", he found a place in which,
""bears, wolves, and bisons wandered, full of morasses and
pools full of deadly efync, or crocodiles, a country inhabited
by a few savage Gauls, but which shortly after the arrival
of Hu and his people became a smiling region, forests being
thinned, bears and wolves hunted down, efyncs annihilated,
bulls and bisons tamed, corn planted, and pleasant cottages
erected. After his death, he was worshipped as the God of
agriculture and war by the Cumry and the Gauls." (Borrow,
1862).

The death of a god was not considered a loss in the

theology of the Celts. Like fire, he might be extinguished
for a spell, but was frequently renewed in the person of the
various High-Kings of Ireland, Scotland and Wales. In
Ireland, the matriarchal tribes worshipped Danu as the
female counterpart of Hu. This earth goddess is frequently
confounded with the Tuathan witch Diancecht, the wife of
the Fomorian sea-giant known as Balor of the Evil Eye. This
seems appropriate for a fire-goddess, as Balor's eye was
the symbol of the sun at noon, which has blighting as well
as beneficial qualities. The two lived on Tory Island,
northwest of Ireland, in a crystal palace which
concentrated the sun's rays as a devastating weapon.

In Irish-Gaelic, "Dia" is the word still used to identify

the current God, while Dianecht is understood to mean
"unbridled power". In Celtic mythology, this lady was
consulted as the goddess of medicine, having attributes of
the Cumric, Branwyn; the Scandinavian, Eira; and the Anglo-
Roman god, Nodens. Danu, herself, is described as the
mother of the Celtic gods, being cognate with the Cumric
goddess Don. She is represented as the bringer of light and
fire to men, the patroness of knowledge. Like Kai, she is
described as an earth-goddess, a person applied to where
the fertility of the soil or cattle was in question. The River
Danube, and several European Rivers called the Don or Dan
were probably named after her.

Unlike Hu, who had little trouble with the aboriginal

race of Wales and southern Scotland, Danu found the
Emerald Isle peopled by the Firbolgs, or Fire-bolts, who
worshipped the goddess Bolg. Ultimately, the Tuatha
daoine, or people of Danu, subjugated the Firbolgs and
altered the pagan religion of this western isle. The
Tuathans also had to conquer the Fomorian sea-giants.
Their principal god was LLyr or Ler, who ruled from an
underwater kingdom. While the Firbolgs were quite ordinary
folk, the Fomors, or sea-demons, were identified as "powers
of darkness and ill, huge and deformed, some with animal
heads, and gifted with malignant and blighting potencies."
More specifically, it was said that members of this race
could change shape at will and that they ate people. At
first the Fomorians allied themselves with the warrior-
magicians who opposed the Firbolgs. One of their kin,
named Bress or Breas, the son of a Hebridean chieftain
called Elathu, married Brigit, the Tuathan "goddess" of
hearth, home and poetry. His efforts to help the Tuatha
daoine were rewarded when he was elected High King of the
island.

Unfortunately, he proved "inhospitable" and had to be

deposed. In his attempt to recover the kingship, he roused
the Fomorians to war and they were twice overthrown by
the "gods", who were protected by the influence of Danu.
These deities were essentially heads of fertility cults, so
each was presumed to have a counterpart of the opposite
sex, or at least some interest in mating and procreation.
The equivalent of Danu was Dagda (the father of day), a
gentleman who gives name to the Dawn Religion.
 These latter-day gods had no prohibitions against
incest and copulation outside of marriage, but they were not
sophisticated perverts. Blasphemous travesties of the
Christian rites had to await the birth of the Marquis de Sade
and Aleister Crawley. The Dagda once mated with Morrigan,
the Fomorian sea-giantess, producing a child called Mecha,
he with "three serpents in his heart. This story is
reminiscent of the fun-loving Scandinavian god Loki, who
coupled with the giantess Angurboda, thus giving rise to
Hel, the ravaging wolf, Fenris, and the encircling world-
serpent.The Dagda's immediate "family" included Brigit,
renowned as the patroness of conjugal love and poetry;
Mider, the god of the underworld; Lugh, the god of free-love,
light, and music; and Og, of the forked tongue, the god of
politicians, the clergy, and other "tricksters".

In each locale, some local baal was remembered at the

Beltane along with latter day fire or day-spirits, added to
the list by the Milesian conquerors. Among the Tuathans and
the Milesians one late-blooming day-god was Crom, whose
idol stood at Crom Cruachan, surrounded by a circle of
twelve disciple stones. In legend, Patrick is supposed to
have directed magic at the main stone so that it sank to its
neck in the soil, while the others fell upon their side
flaking off the god and silver with which they were
encrusted. Several centuries before King Tighernmas and
two-thirds of his people were wiped out as they assembled
on the plain of Magh Slecht in Brefni to worship this god.
Possibly this is why his name is preserved in Gaelic, where
the uncapitalized form indicates something "twisted, bent,
or crooked"?

His female counterpart was Brigit, who came to

Ireland, and later to Scotland, with the Brigantes. As we've
said, all the later Celts considered her a fire goddess, the
virgin attendants at her shrine being responsible for the
forging of metals and the healing-arts. Agricultural
fertility-spirits such as Cernu, the corn-god of Cornwall,
Graine, Samh and Taillte of the Gaels; god-spirits of the
hunt, as the Cailleach Bheur, or Winter Hag, and Skadi or
Skudi (and perhaps Scoti?); as well as those of war, notably
Cu Chullain, Eochaid, and Nuada of the Silver Hand, became
leaders of the sidh when the Christians became ascendent.

With the proliferation of god-spirits under the

Milesians, the origin of central figure in the Beltane became
completely obscured. The Beltane fires, kindled with great
ceremony on May Eve had to do with the deliberate killing
and reincarnation of one or more of these pagan deities.
After the physical death of the Kai, or Hu, in his own time,
he was not available to serve as a scapegoat to each new
generation, so a substitute was chosen by lot.

Sir James Fraser says that traces of human sacrifice

at the Beltane "were particularly clear and unequivocal".
The custom of lighting these "bone-fires" lasted well into
the eighteenth century so that descriptions of the less-
objectionable features of the rites survive. John Ramsay,
the Laird of Ochertyre, a patron of Robert Burns and a chum
of Sir Walter Scott said that the Beltane was "the most
considerable of the Druidical festivals". Druidic religious
rites date from at least one thousand B.C. when the
Milesians routed the Tuathans. These were the first
patently Gaelic people, although the Tuatha daoine, the
Silurians of Wales, the Pits, and the Firbolgs may have been
related peoples speaking other dialects of the Celtic tongue.

The ancient Gaelic word "draoi" identified a

practitioner of magic religious rituals, but the word "druid"
is now understood to mean "a thrush or starling", these
birds having once been identified as familiars of the
magician-class. The verb form "druidh" has been retained to
describe "that which penetrates deeply, or oozes into every
corner". This insidious group comprised priests, physicians,
wonder-workers, bards, and historians in various
admixtures. The bards used poetry as an aid to memory, the
vates were prophets of the clan, and the druids, proper,
managed formal rites while acting as judges and medicine
men. Druidism was their system of religion, philosophy and
instruction.
 It is uncertain whether this was a Celtic invention or
a religion borrowed from an earlier people, perhaps the
latter, since the Gaels said they obtained instruction in it
from the Britons. The fact that they considered the
mistletoe and the oak sacred has led to the suggestion that
it was based on tree worship. This would be similar to the
Scandinavian proposition that their god Thor frequently took
the form of a giant tree. Transmigration of the soul was
another basic belief and "human sacrifice was practised on
a vast scale." Like other druidic functions, the Beltane fire
was set on hills, or islands, or upon some other high place.
It is known that the Celts felt that their gods would resent
confinement, so all the ceremonies took place in the open
air.

Ramsay has said that the traditional high-places were

forgotten in Victorian Scotland and in later days each
hamlet practised its customs on the closest rise in the
land, usually near the common, where herds were at pasture.
"Thither the young people repaired in the morning and cut a
trench (to prevent the fire from spreading through the
heath), on the summit of which a seat of turf was formed
for the company. And in the middle, a pile of wood or other
fuel was placed, which of old they kindled with "tein-
eiginn" (need-fire). Although for may years, they have been
contented with common fire...it will hereafter appear that
recourse is still had to the "tein-eiginn"."

The killing of the fire-god was symbolized the night

before, when the country fires were extinguished from
every hearth. The next day, the materials for the need-fire
were gathered. In the least complex case, a well-seasoned
oak plank was obtained and a cone shaped hole-drilled part-
way through it. A vertical sharpened-pole, termed the
"wimble" was fitted into this opening. The free end of the
wimble was fitted with a spoked wheel, which was used to
turn the axle generating a friction fire. In some places
three people were thought the lucky-number needed to turn
the wheel, in other places nine individuals were
conscripted. Whatever the magic number, the devotees had
to have unblemished reputations. If any among the wimble-
turners was guilty of theft or some other crime, it was
supposed that the need-fire would not light and disease and
witchcraft would then be rampant in the coming season. In
Aberdeenshire, the great, or "muckle" wheel was used to
start the "wild" or need-fire. This device differed in the
fact that the wheel was extremely large and substantial.
On the Isle of Mull, the fire-engine was always spun from
east to west over nine splinters of oak wood. Sometimes it
was prescribed that the cart-wheel and axle had to be
newly constructed. In a few cases, the fire was kindled by
simply rubbing two sticks together, or by using a bow and a
rope to turn the wimble. If the latter was the case, it was
specified that the rope should be new, and if possible woven
from strands taken from a gallows rope used in a recent
hanging. Various regional rules controlled those who were
allowed to set the need fire. Sometimes those manning the
fire-machine were expected to be brothers or share a first
name.

In some places it was enough that chaste young men

operated the wheel, elsewhere every resident of the village
was expected to take a hand in making the fire. In the
western islands of Scotland, the fire was kindled and set by
eighty-one married men and in North Uist, the chore went to
eighty-one first-born sons. In Caithness, it was felt
necessary for the operators to remove all coins and metals
from their person. If after long rubbing, no fire erupted, it
was concluded that some villager had left embers of the old
fire upon his hearth. A strict search would then be carried
out by the constables and the negligent householder was
upbraided or even fined.

The date of the setting of the need-fire might range

from the evening of Beltane to the night of May second,
depending on local preferences. The "bonnach Bealltain" or
Beltane oatcake is the only survivor of the four quarter-
cakes which were once cooked for periodic fire-festivals.
In seventeen sixty-nine Pennant wrote, "On the first of May
the herdsmen (of Perthshire) hold their Bel-tien, a rural
sacrifice. They cut a square trench on the ground leaving
the turf in the middle; on that they make a fire of wood on
which they dress a large caudle of eggs, plenty of beer and
whisky, for each of the company must contribute something.

The rites begin with the spilling of some caudle on the

ground, by way of libation:on that, every one takes a cake of
oatmeal, upon which are raised nine square knobs, each
dedicated to some particular being, the supposed preserver
of their flocks and herds, or to some particular animal, the
destroyer of them. Each person then turns his face to the
fire, breaks off a knob, and flinging it over his shoulder
says, "This I give to thee, oh god-spirit preserve thou my
horses." Having dealt with the beneficent spirits of the
land, they then propitiate the noxious animals with such
phrases as, "This I give thee oh fox, spare thou my lambs."
With the ceremony over the assembly would dine on the
caudle. Anything left of the feast was hidden until the
Sunday following when the party would reassemble to
"complete their lunch".

This, of course, describes a late remnant of the

Beltane rites, which were celebrated somewhat differently
in the parish of Callender in Western Perthshire. The
minister of that area witnessed somewhat different
ceremonies in the eighteenth century. They did dig the
usual sod table for their fire and fare, but afterwards
created a repast of "eggs and milk in the consistency of
custard." The observer continued, "They knead a cake of
oatmeal into so many portions, as similar as possible to one
another in size and shape, as there are persons in the
company. They daub one of these portions all over with
charcoal, until it is perfectly black. They put all the bits of
cake into a bonnet. Every one, blindfold, draws out a
portion. He who holds the bonnet is entitled to the last bit.
Whoever draws the black bit is the "devoted" person who is
to be sacrificed to Baal, whose favour they mean to
implore...although they now pass from the act of sacrificing,
and only compel the "devoted" person top leap three times
through the flames; with which the ceremonies of the
festival are closed."

Another means of selection by lot is perhaps found in

the custom of baking oatmeal "wheels" which were rolled
down hill in some regions of the north. In recent times it
was said that the person whose cake shattered as it rolled
would die or be unfortunate during the year. In the remote
past this was probably a certainty rather than a prediction.
The "bal nan tuathanach", or rent-payers's ball, or farmer's
dance was another mark of night-time activities of the
Beltane. Once again, the participants danced in the round,
three times "southways" about the bonfire. Sometimes they
danced in multiple sets of the numbers three and nine.

Considering the origins of this fire-festival it is not

remarkable that people believed that demons and witches
were abroad for the celebration, stealing milk from cows
while the farmers were absent and generally damaging the
countryside. To counteract this, each cotter carried old
thatch, straw, furze, and bran to the communal fire to be
burned in the light of new fire. This was undoubtedly good
animal husbandry as well as viable ritual since parasites
were eliminated in this material. Wherever these remnants
were burned, they were tossed high in the air from pitch-
forks in the belief that the light of their burning benefitted
the land wherever it penetrated. It was said that the new
crops of the coming season would grow in proportion to the
height to which the burning refuse could be thrown. In later
days, when the god-spirit ceased to be a actual sacrificial
victim, the younger people ran through the smoke, shouting,
"Fire, fire, blaze and burn the witches; fire, fire, burn the
witches." When the fuel was consumed, the celebrants
scattered the ashes far and wide, continuing to demand,
"Fire, burn the witches!"

In the Hebrides, every fire was put out for the Beltane
and cattle were driven "dessil" or sunward around it to
"keep of murrain" (a disease of these animals). There, each
man would take home new fire to kindle his hearth. In
Ireland, the festive-fires were still being lighted in
nineteen twenty-one, but on June twenty-third,
Midsummer's Eve, rather than at the Beltane. With torches
from the common fire, crofters drew "the sacred circle of
fire" around the growing crops, "to ensure both its
protection and its fruitfulness." Through the dying embers,
cattle were driven "for their blessing". MacManus notes,
"These fires were are assuredly of pagan origin marking a
great sun-feast, on that day when the sun-god was supposed
to be longest above the horizon."

Although the Irish of that day no longer remembered

the significance of the earlier Beltane, they did say that
these were the "fires of Bal". This was one of the practices
which Saint Patrick disliked, saying, "All those who adore
it, shall in misery and wretchedness be given over into
punishment." The Welsh also held fires in May and at
Midsummer, which they agreed, "protected the lands from
sorcery, so that good crops would follow. The ashes were
also considered as valuable charms." One Irish account
suggests the fires were kindled "for Cormac or somebody
like his name", a probable reference to the old day-god
Crom. May Day in that country was called Lucky Fire Day or
the Day of The Two Fires.

The druids of the Emerald Isle once brought cattle to

the two fires and "with great incantations" drove them
between ":as a safeguard against the diseases of the year."
Again according to MacManus, driving cattle between the
fires persisted down to times within current memory. In all
of this it should be remembered that the Beltane of
Scotland is, elsewhere in Europe, the equivalent of the
notorious Walpurgis Night, when witches were abroad in
unseemly numbers.

In Voigtland, they used to light bonfires on the high

land and leap through the flames for good luck. Moreover,
like the Scots, they tossed burning brooms high into the air
and assumed that where light reached the fields, they were
"blessed". The kindling of the fires on Walpuris Night was
called "driving out the witches" and when witch torching
was in fashion, this was the preferred time for sending
them to meet their master. While latecomers sacrificed
witches to the "divine" fire. the first rites centred on the
death and resurrection of the earth-spirit.

Killing this spirit as a scapegoat aimed at expelling

the accumulated evils of the village or town. This
clearance of the ills of the land, whether real or imagined,
was periodic and commonly preceded or followed a time of
licence in which the ordinary restraints of society were
ignored. In considering the reasons for sacrificing the
Celtic god it must be remembered that earlier generations
believed in the mortality of the gods, who differed from
men only in their control of an aspect of nature. These
mortal god-priest-kings aged, and it was therefore thought
an act of good conduct to spare this divine person from the
inconveniences of living on in a decaying body. Since they
god had to die and be regenerated it seemed sensible to lay
upon him all of the blights and suffering of the community,
so that these could be carried into some other world beyond
the grave. Killing the "god" was not, at first, an annual
practice.

The divinely reincarnated fire-spirits who appeared

from time to time as high kings of the realm were allowed
to remain in office for a magical number of years or as long
as he remained free of "blemish", which included battle
injuries, minor scars and defects of failing health or
advancing age. It was then usual for the successor to the
throne to arrange for the timely passing of the god king,
sometimes ritually and or in the heat of battle. Since much
of Celtic custom hinges on intervals of nine and thirty
years, these may have served as terminal times for the
ancient kings.

Some Celtic king undoubtedly conceived the happier

idea of dying by proxy. Scandinavian tradition hints that the
old Swedish kings were only allowed a nine year life
expectancy. Thus Aun, a king of that realm, offered nine of
his sons over a period of many years , and would have
sacrificed a tenth except that his people were dissatisfied
with the state of his health and hurried him to the bone-
pile. With the king no longer at risk, his stand-in was
typically chosen from the general population by lot, hence
the continuing tradition of picking people for unwelcome
chores by a drawing for the carline or black bean. Since a
lottery was unselective individuals of social or political
importance were sometimes lost, depleting the strength of
the clan.

Fortunately, it was recalled that each community

housed "broken men" or sassenachs in addition to "native
men" and these were made "king for a day" if prisoners of
war were unavailable for this draft. With the danger of
death removed from clan members, it was suggested that
multiple deaths would return more of the god-spirit to the
soil, thus twice yearly fire-festivals were instituted. The
burning of effigies containing larger numbers of people
along with cats, dogs, snakes, and other uncanny creatures
followed. One of the principles of imitative magic holds
that as a man may stand in for a king, and a king for a god,
so an image of a man may also serve to represent him. Thus
in debased ritual, the "wicked" men and women were undone
by being burned in facsimile, and this remains a popular way
of "doing down" evil.

In some parts of Scotland a straw woman known as

the Cailleach Bheur, or Winter Hag was burned at the
Beltane as a representative of the spirit of the cold season
as well as other more common foes. In parts of Europe
Christians continued the pagan practice of burning the god,
or his representative, but they explained that the figure
was a magical accessory to Judas Iscariot, Martin Luther, or
a medieval witch. Fire cannot exist without fuel, and the
material which was burned was not always a figure
fashioned from the last sheaf of autumn. In many regions,
the object placed at the centre of the bonfire was a rudely-
carved figure or a tree, which might be burned either felled
or on location. In these cases the god-spirit due to be
reincarnated was obviously a tree-spirit rather than an
agricultural deity. If the scapegoat happened to represent a
soil-spirit there were special reasons why he should die by
fire.

Light and heat were seen as necessary for vegetable

growth, thus the application of heat and light to the "god" by
fire was thought to secure abundant sun-light and heat in
the following growing season. Almost the only remnant of
human sacrifice in Scotland occurs on Hallowe'en when lads
lie close to the fire, while allowing others to jump over
them. The titular "king" at Aix, in France, who "reigned for
a year and a day, and danced the first round at the
midsummer fire, used to feed the fire where he now has the
honour of lighting it. When human beings were preferred for
the burning, some of the Celts reserved Skadi or Scati's lot
(i.e. monies obtained from the hunt), to purchase criminals
for the Beltane and Samhainn fires. If there were
insufficient criminals to supply the need of the soil and
men, fresh captives were obtained and immolated.

Those victims whose background allowed them to

understand the need for these rites went to earth without
complaint or much fear being dispatched with druidic
arrows. Individuals who were thought of as criminals were
burned alive. Those who died contained within wicker-work
effigies were often condemned to death on the grounds that
they were foreign witches or wizards, with execution by
fire being the only means of being certain that they might
not reanimate themselves. Thus the fires eliminated
potential enemies, trouble-makers, surplus wild animals,
while guaranteeing the continued productivity of the
community.

The animals who died were probably seen as witches

who had transformed themselves, and in medieval times
cats were most frequently offered up as they were
considered the familiars of witches. The earliest Beltane
fires were probably lighted in pagan Ireland near the old
Firbolg capitol of Tara, where there was, "In Cormac's time,
a house of virgins who kept constantly alive the fires of the
Bel or sun, and Samain, the moon." The high-kingship of that
land developed from the coherence of principalities in what
is now County Meath. The possessors of that land were
made wealthy by the fact that Tara overlooks grass-lands
which have been famous for raising healthy cattle.

This town had additional significance in the fact that

it stood near bronze-age burial chambers and temples of the
pagan gods. Prominent among these was the Brugh or
dwelling place of Angus, a divinity of youth and love, The
early priest-kings of the Scots, who ruled here, were
representatives of a divinity whose office involved the
performance of sexual rites in the interest of fertility.
"The divine folk (i.e. the sidh or fairies as well as the god-
spirits) lived in the Brugh. From it came the brides of the
king's ritual marriages..." Our forefathers personified
almost everything as male or female, hence Og, the god of
youth had a female counterpart in Ogma, and Angus in his
"sister" Brigit.

In addition to personifying the fire-god, our

forbearers recognized a host of god-spirits, who were
thought to be less powerful than the elementals of fire,
water, air and earth, but more capable than the magical
sidh, or seed-people. The god-spirits included Cernu, who
gave his name to Cornwall, and was called Cernunnos by the
Roman invaders. The Cailleach appears to have been a
female counterpart for the hunting and herding tribes. At
May-tide people were selected as king and queen of the May
or as the Whitsun (white sun) bride and bridegroom, or as a
pair carrying some similar name. It was reasoned that if
representatives of the god-spirits coupled sexually, this
should quicken the growth of everything in the animate
world over which they held dominion.

In this, rustic peoples of medieval times played out

roles once reserved to the High-Kings and his virgins of the
Brugh. The representations were not mere allegories, but
actual acts intended to green the woods, cause fresh grass
to sprout, the oats to shoot, and the flowers to beal. It was
held that the more closely this mock-marriage of leaf-clad
and flower-decked mummers came to representing a
complete consummation for god-spirits, the better the
results. The high degree of peripheral sex which
accompanied the central sex rites was not accidental
excess but an allied attempt to guarantee the fruitfulness
of the earth. It is ironic that the druids used magic to
oppose magic, so that popular ideas concerning the Dawn
Religion became interwoven with concepts of witchcraft.

Many vestiges of that religion remain, the sacrificial

cult of the divine king surviving in the Christian "blood of
the Lamb", with other rituals being encased in poetic form
to describe new and abstract meanings. Touching wood for
good look is a survival of pagan rites as is the refusal to
walk beneath a ladder. The last was formerly called
Woden's Scaffold and was used to bind sacrificial victims
while they were disembowelled. Keeping an animal mascot
was, similarly, once the prerogative of High-Kings, that
animal sometimes being a scape-goat for his human master.
Power is at the base of all the magic religions, control over
the rain and the sun through festival rites, and over human
limitations through self-hypnosis or crowd control, being
usual aims. It was natural for the savage Celt to assume
that he had the potential to control the elements, as he
thought of himself as an aspiring god. Since part of the
magic of his world was shared by every being he felt
certain that he could manipulate the physical world by
dealing with that part of him which was supernatural.

Witchcraft, being tied to magic, represents man's

religious urges in a rudimentary state. The Christian
religion seeks to transcend this world for the sake of the
race, while magic wishes to control it for individual
benefit. More simply, Christianity seeks communion with
god, while witchcraft and the pagan religions considered
that men were part of the godhood. Witchcraft, like the
Dawn Religion, has been misunderstood. The present
attitude is that witchcraft embraced poor
 , old, hysterical, repressed women, who were subject
to fantastic delusions. This view, which may be thought of
as "rational disbelief" started in the mid eighteenth century
and is related to the anti-Popery and pro-science
movements of that time. The opposite position was that of
the Roman Catholic Church which held that the witch-cult
represented a vast secret network of malice and heresy. In
1921, Dr. Margaret Murray suggested that witchcraft might
be a survival of a pre-Christian fertility-cult. If so, it was
not the Dawn Religion, whose druids considered the
"wiccans" foreign magicians who needed burning. There are
two other popular ideas concerning the nature of witchcraft
and the elder religion, both misleading. The first might be
called "romantic diabolism", a cult-following which became
fashionable in the late 1890's.

The first Christian missionaries assimilated the old

gods into their rituals sometimes giving them alternate
names, thus Brigit, goddess of the lambent flame, became
Saint Brigit, the helpmate of Saint Patrick. Where the
character of an older god seemed defective he was banished,
dismissed, or demoted to the rank of witch or fairy, or
deliberately confounded with the Hebrew "antagonist" called
Satan. The Black Mass had nothing to do with the old pagan
rites, being instead a parody of the Christian mass. The
idea of a reversed mass and the deliberate worship of Satan
dates no earlier than the literary inventions of the Marquis
de Sade in the eighteenth century.

There is, also, a more common modern "witch", who

has found favour with the "media". Whenever church
tombstones are overturned, some member of a coven will
appear to explain that they are not responsible, and not
Satanists, but worshippers of the "Earth-Mother". Most of
them take pains to emphasize the fact that their nude
autumn dancing is asexual in intent. Clearly these
individuals are not into the spirit of Samhainn and Beltane?
The Dawn Religion, which is the source of the central dance
figure, the ritual fire, and the "sacrifice" of witchcraft,
was never the club of a jaded elite. From its first days it
held no interest for educated town-folk, but was the
practice in remote country districts which stood closer to
primitive models.

However uncouth and ill-intentioned they were, the

real witches of medieval Europe were a large body of fairly
representative citizens of that time. Unlike self-styled
Satanists, who upset conservative Christians, they were
neither sexual perverts nor mental adolescents. Several
centuries ago, life was almost terminally brutal; a time
when Scottish clerics preached pre-destination for the few
and certain damnation for the masses. It must have been
comparatively easy for the uneducated, who perceived
themselves as having very little to lose, to attempt a little
of the craft in the hope of gaining temporary control over a
bad situation. Modern "witchcraft" and even diabolism is
practice without much notice from the law, and as such it
is a feeble baroque affectation compared with older rites.
Today the craft is dead, a condition created by its legal
abolishment in 1736.

OIDHCHE-CHALLAINN, CALLUINN, (aech-e chal-inn),

Hogmanay, the eve of November 1. Literally the “Night of the
Calluinn.” Caill, obs. to name, to call, obs. The testicle, to
emasculate. Now: loss, suffer, lose, forfeit. Hogamanay, or
Hogmanay, is the primary Scottish celebration during the
Yuletide. Originally this fire-festival took place on the
evening before a' Bhliadhn' Ur, or the New Year, Old Style
(i.e. October 31). Pronounced "aech-a chal-inn", this night
of the master of the dog, has been moved forward from the
original eve of Samhainn to what is now known as New
Year's Eve.

Our guess is that the Hogamanay represents rituals

which were once a part of Samhainn. Not very long ago, it
was customary, in the Highlands of Scotland, for a man to
dress himself in a cow's hide at this time, passing from
house to house pursued by a company of youthful men, who
struck out at their leader with cow-hide whips. Round each
hose, costumed "mummers" or "janneys" ran three times in
the direction of the sun, keeping the house on their right. In
pagan times, that direction would have been reversed. The
company chased their Hog or Og-man beating the staff end
of their whips against buildings as they ran. Hog may seem
unrelated to cow, but the word originally meant a yearling
animal of any species, but especially pigs and cattle.

At the door they finally paused to demand Hogamanay,

or money for the Old Hog (who we suspect was once the god
Og, the deity of youth ,whose name translates as "young". If
they were admitted, and lacking a treat they promised a
trick, one of them pronounced a benediction as: May the gods
bless this house and all within, stone, cattle and timber! In
plenty be meat, bed, body clothes, and may the health of men
ever abound." Afterwards, each of the party singed his whip
in the fire, and applied a little charcoal to the face of every
animal and person in the household to protect against
disease and witchcraft. The ceremony was called calliunn,
because of the great noise of the ceremony.

The original attachment of Hogamanay to October

thirty-first is seen in Scottish Atlantic Canada, where
blackening the face is a common "Hallowe'een" disguise and
"Hogmanay" is shouted instead of "Trick or Treat". The
Victorian practice of asking for coins as part of the
celebration has faded, but this was a continuation of the
demand for "hog-money". The money collected in the name
of Og, the god of youth, was originally pledged to a
Samhainn feast but later went for food and drink to be
consumed that same night. The solicitation of fruit,
candies, and pennies on Hallowe'en is exactly in this pagan
tradition.

The tradition of beating out evil is found in the

simpler forms of Guiser or Goloshan plays, which were
performed in Scotland at anytime during the Yule season,
but particularly on New Year's Eve or Day. Thomas Wilkie
who saw an early version of this play at Bowden,
Roxyburyshire wrote, "The Gysarts (or Disguisers) always
dress themselves in white. They appear like so many dead
persons robed in their shrouds, who have just risen from
their narrow home...their faces all being painted black or
dark blue. Their mutches sometimes adorned with ribbons
of diverse colours." Some wore masks and dunce-caps,
"casques of brown paper shaped like a mitre."

In these medieval plays there were five characters,

expanded to seven in the Victorian version: Sir Alex (called
the Black Night in some parts); Alex of Macedonian ; the
Farmer's Son; Goloshan Galgacus; William Wallace; the
Doctor (sometimes Dr. Brown); and Beelzebub or Judas. In
former times the players passed the "rounds" of the village
led by "Galgacus", who was once the actual leader of the
Caledons against the Romans at the Battle of Mons Grapius.
At each door these mummers intoned: Rise up guidwife and
shake your feathers, Dinna think that we are beggars; We're
only bairns come out to play, Rise up and gie's our
Hogmanay. Five of us all, five merry boys are we. And we
have come a rambling your house for to see. Your house for
to see sir, and pleasure for to have, and what you freely
give us, we freely will receive." Following, the crew enact
an invariable playlet in which the Alex, or a character
named the Admiral, sword-fights Goloshin and kills him.
The Black Night accuses the Admiral but he lays blame on
the Farmer's Son. The Doctor is called to revive the victim,
and after haggling for his fee, he brings him back using the
magic incantation " Inkey, Pinkey, a little medicine to his
nose, a little more to his toes". The reincarnated character
is now named Jack, who pledges the Black Night, "never to
fight no more... But we will all gise as brethren as we have
done before. We thank the master of this house, likewise
the mistress too, and all the little bairns that round the
table grew." Finally, the householders are troubled by a
devil-figure who promises: "Here come I, old Beelzebub,
Over my shoulder I carry a club. In my hand is a dripping
pan, and I fancy myself a jolly old man. I've got a little box
that can speak without a tongue. If you got any coppers,
please pop one?"
 Usually the head of the house exchanged a halpenny
for the entertainment but humourless individuals were
likely to turn upon the guisers and beat them from the
house. Reminiscent of today's Hallowe'en, the costumed
guisers were not always benign. Once they were heavily
disguised peasants set on extorting money from their
overseers, which explains why they were not always
politely received.

This business is still referred to as janneying in

Newfoundland and belsnicking in Lunenburg County, Nova
Scotia. It was called Home Visiting in Irish and Scottish
parts of Atlantic Canada, but in most parts the rituals have
devolved into "First-footing". This rite demands that the
first individual who comes calling after midnight on New
Year's Eve should be a dark-haired stranger. The first
vikings were light-haired and bringers of extremely bad
luck! For the good luck of the house, the newcomer
exchanges symbols of food and fuel (e.g. a potato and coal)
for "refreshments".

OIDHCHE-CHOINNLE, The “Night of the Candle,” Candlemas

Eve. The evening following the pagan Imbolg (February 1).
“After the Day of Bridd comes that of Mary,” says the Gaels.
The Night of the Candles seems to have been an attempt to
downplay the earlier pagan fire-festival. Pope Sergius,
noting that many converted men were still “drawn to such
maumetry and untrue beliefs,” attempted to undo this
“foule custom” by commanding that good Christians appear
at the church to offer up lights “to our Lady and to her
Sonne our Lord.”

The Presbyterian reformists in Scotland proscribed

the “Holy Candles,” just as the Catholics had the rural
bonfires, but with indifferent results. “It remained
customary,” we are told, “after the abolition of popery, to
walk at Candlemas to the Chapel in the dead of night.”
Further, tapers continued to be consecrated and taken home
as proof against thunder or the malevolence of evil spirits.
Candlemas ended the forty days of the month of Yule.
Divination was a logical addendum of this night, which
ended winter’s entitlement, and in the north-east, the rites
of Candlemas Eve drifted at last to Fastern’s Eve, which
was at the beginning of Lent. See Latha Choinnle,
“Candlemas Day.”

OIDHCHE-LUGHNASAD. When the gods were reduced to demon

status at the introduction of Christianity, Loki was
deliberately confounded with the Roman god, Saturn and
other pagan underworld deities. Stripped of their titles,
these gods became the prototype for the Christian anti-god
called Satan, or the Devil. The last day of the week used to
be sacred to Loki and in Scandinavian it was called Lugardag
or Lugar's Day in the Old Norse tongue. This is the day
which we continue to call Saturday after Sataere, a
Teutonic god of agriculture, who some equate with Loki, the
god of bound or underground fire. In the beginning,

Loki appears in myths as a personification of the

hearth fire, but gradually he became, "god and devil
combined", and in the end came to resemble the medieval
Lucifer, the god of lies. His changed situation was
indicated in his incarnation as the giant Utgard-Loki (under
earth bound-fire). His Celtic counterpart was Lugh, who
gave his name to the Lugnasal or Lunasdal, which used to be
held yearly as a fire festival on or about August 4. This is
one of the few cases where a god of the far north has been
linguistically tied to one of Gaelic blood. An Eddaic name
given Loki in the Danish ballads was Loki Lojemand (wild-
fire playman), because of his tendancy towards practical
jokes and mischief.

The Anglo-Saxon "lacan" or "loecan" is related to both

words, and from Loki there arose the diminished god-spirit
or fairy called the Lubberkin. In Gaelic the equivalent name
was Lobaircin, and in the Ulster tongue Lucharman. This
creature has several local variants the best known
corruption being Leprachaun, which translates literally as
OLd Lob, or Old Lugh, or Old Loki. Loki or Lugh is still
remembered in the English speaking-world in the surnames
Lock, Locke, Lockwood, and the like, and in Gaelic names
such as Lochlan and Maclaughlin.

The Christians renamed Lugh's Day as Lammas, the

mass of the first fruits of harvest, and even the Gaels now
use "lugha" as an adjective in the sense of "smallest". The
expression Auld Lob is still applied to the Devil, but the
association of the Celtic god with this Hebrew deity is
undeserved. The Great Lug, Lugg, or Lugh was once
described as a foster son of the Dagda, the day-god of the
Firbolgs of Tara in Ireland. His actual mother was said to
be the daughter of a Fomorian sea-giant, while his father
was Kian of Contje , one of the Tuathan warrior-wizards
who conquered Tara. Kian obtained the help of Manannan
MacLir, the immortal son of the Fomorian sea-god, in
escaping from his father-in-law's castle on Tory Island
with the child. As a condition for this assistance Lugh was
fostered out to the undersea kingdom off the coast of the
Isle of Man. In that place Manannan gave him the name Dul
Dauna (one who is allied to the goddess Danu).
Unfortunately, these names have gained other connotations,
"dul" now having the sense of "foolish, mad, stupid, daft, or
slow-witted". In other places he was called the High Lugh,
but this is scarcely better since the word "lug" now means
"to carry with extreme difficulty, or one who is a trouble or
burden to others". Today the expression "lug-head" is still
understood as derogatory, and in the elder days it indicated
an individual who moved in a clumsy fashion, a haughty
individual, or one who was in the habit of affecting showy
clothing, in short, a fop or an oaf. Fortunately, his
character received better treatment in his own day.

As a youngster he applied for work at the palace of

Eochaid, the High King of the Firbolgs. No one was admitted
here without having a unique skill or craft and Lugh was at
first rejected when he noted his abilities as a carpenter, a
warrior, a smith, a harpist, a poet, antiquarian, physician,
cupbearer, and goldsmith. The court, he was told, already
possessed one each of these and needed no more. Finally,
Lugh responded, "Then tell your master, the King, that one
stands without who is at once master of all these arts and
professions to a degree surpassing all these others. If
there is one among you who can claim this, I shall no longer
seek admittance at Tara." The King was dubious but
numerous tests confirmed Lugh as "Sab Ildanach", the stem
of all arts. Eochaid, the horseman of heaven, welcomed Lugh
to the chair of ard-ollam, or high bard, and made him chief
professor of the arts and sciences, but perhaps lived to
regret his largesse since the Tuathans eventually removed
the Firbolgs from Tara. Having put down their land rivals,
the Tuathans now turned against the sea-giants, or Fomors,
who were eventually defeated on the plains of Sligo in
western Ireland.

In this fray, the secret weapon of the Fomorians was

Balor, of the evil-eye, Lugh's grandfather on his mother's
side of the family. Balor's castle on Tory Island has been
described as constructed of a crystalline material which
concentrated the sun's rays as a weapon, and this may have
been the source of the rumour that his single eye was
dangerous to both friend and foe. It was said that the lid
was rolled up and down upon a wooden staff with the
assistance of four "normal-sized" giants. When the lid was
pulled back some claimed that poisonous vapours escaped
from it while others said it liberated a fire-spell which
turned those within his gaze to stone. In action at sea the
Dul Dauna travelled with the Tuathan fleet against Balor
Beimann. Lugh knew that he could not look directly upon his
foe and so put a magical stone ring to his eye and seeing his
grandfather on a neighbouring deck used a dart to penetrate
the eye. Balor's end in this manner had been divined many
years before, but the act was done without Lugh's
realization that he had killed a relative. Following this,
Lugh was considered a mortal-god of the Tuatha danann, a
people eventually subjugated by the iron weapon-bearing
Milesians, who constitute the bulk of current Irishmen.

The Scots, who were of the Firbolg line, intermarried

all of these races, and through the Tuathan connection
gained this hero as part of their mythology. When the
Tuathans "went under the hill" and became the "little
people" of Irish legend, Lugh is said to have led one branch
of this great clann into the underworld, and in Ireland their
remains a town named after him. In spite of the present
connotation Lugaid, or Lug-head was a preferred throne
name, frequently used by the Milesians, who appreciated
Lughs heroism.

One suspects that the decline in reputation had

something to do with the reign of Lughaid MacCon, whose
surname carried some problems and was indicative of his
character. The nature of the Lugnasad, which occurred just
after mid-summer, was somewhat like that of today's
Highland Games. Lugnasad means the games of Lugh, and
was first instituted by the god in memory of his foster
mother Taillte. For this last reason, the sports-portion of
the Lugnasad was sometimes called the Tailltean Games.
The games were held yearly as part of the Fair of Taillte (a
place now called Telltown) in County Meath. The main
function of that fair was to showcase athletics, and it
became famous throughout Eirinn, Alba, and medieval
Britain as the place to participate in races and contests. In
time, it also became known as a marriage market, where
boys and girls were brought by the thousands to be matched
for marriage, and where parents might bargain for the
"tinnscra" (dowry), hiring marriage-brokers where they
were unable to reach a settlement.

The games typically started on the first day of August

but continued for about a week. Naturally, the eve before,
or following, the opening of the fair, was devoted to
religous rites, hence the alternate designation, Lunastain,
which points graphically to "staining" or the outpouring of
blood. The oat-cake ceremonies at this time were the
bonnach Lunastain, which was baked using the first
harvested grains of the season. It should be noted that the
Lugnasal is, in Scotland and Ireland, the principal moving-
day of the sidh or "little people". When the Tuatha danann
became the Danann sidh they were held in their underground
residences by laws and armed warriors with an effect as
great as that of any binding magic. Their only respite was
found at the time of the great fire-festivals and later
during the Daft Days, more recently called Christmas-tide.
The Lunastain was one of these Highland Quarters, which
the tenant farmers knew well as the time for rent-paying or
moving. On this day, the sidh-people, who were able to
meet their commitments were temporarily free to travel
along their lei-lines in order to visit, or exchange
residences, with others of their kind.

Aside from the usual ritual fire and the burning of a

representative "god-king", there was also a feast and this
has become the principle Christian rite. The Lammas, as
presently constituted, falls on August 12 and is the time of
the first harvest, hence the name "loaf mass". In early
times, in England, this day was kept as the initial harvest
festival, loaves of bread from the first sheaves being
consecrated at the mass.

OIDHCHE NAM BONNAGAN, “Bannock Night,” The “Night of the

Cakes.” The time for the ritual baking of bannocks, now
said to honour the Nativity. Christmas Eve, also known as
“Singing Eve.”

OIDHCHE-SHAMHNA, (aech-e- haun-e), the eve of Samh's end;

“Summer's end,” Hallowe'en. New Years' Eve. Originally
October 31. Termed the Hogamanay in Old Saxon, this "Night
of the Samh" was the final fire of the Celtic Year, falling
upon the eve of the special day called Samhainn. While most
Europeans celebrated Midsummer Eve or Midsummer Day
with a great fire, the Celtic people took little notice of the
sun when it was highest in the sky, saving their energies
until October 31st. AS we've said there were once only two
seasons: summer and winter, demarcated by May Eve and
Samhainn Eve. These dates are unrelated to astronomical
events and it is coincidental that Harvest Home falls close
to this evening in Scotland. There are a few places in
central Europe where the year is bisected as it is in
Scotland. In these cattle-herding places, May Day is
celebrated along with Valpurgis Nacht, or Walpurgis Night,
the last coinciding with Samhainn.

Beltane, or May Eve, has already been described and is

much like Samhainn its essentials. Thus Hogmanay or New
Year's Eve, OLd Style, saw mummers making the rounds,
extorting cash, or kind, for a day-long feast to take place
during the daylight hours of November 1st. There was
"first-footing" and on the Eve of Samhainn, the dampening of
hearth fires so that they might be rekindled from "new-
fire".

Of the two feasts, that held on Samhainn Eve was the

more important since the Celts dated their year from it
rather than from Beltane. On the Isle of Man, where Celtic
lore had a long battle against Saxon tales and myths, the
first day of November was regarded as New Year's Day
through the last century and the first quarter of the current
one. The Manx mummers, dressed in animal skins, used to
make the "rounds" on that evening (calculated from the Old
Style calendar) shouting, "Tonight is New Year's Eve,
Hogunnaa!" The style of divination practised at this time
also suggests that they sought new beginnings. Finally, the
Celts wherever they were found throughout Europe agreed
that the following day marked the end of summer and the
beginning of winter. "When autumn to pale winter resigns
the year", it was thought natural that the "nach maireann",
those no longer alive, might wish to assemble at the
bonfires of men to seek a little comfort and the good cheer
provided by former neighbours.

Unfortunately it was not only the kin who were

thought to be unbound at this time. In addition to "tamhasg"
(spirits of the dead), the "baobh"(witches) and the "sidh"
were at large. While the May-fires were a time for
wholesale burnings, these late summer fires seem to have
been more restrained with individual communities
competing to see who could build the largest fires using
more conventional materials. In the parish of Callender the
fires blazed down through time until the late eighteenth
century, leaving us with some notion of the rites which
accompanied them. When the fire was almost extinguished,
the ashes used to be raked into a circle and stones were
placed near the circumference by the families who had
established the flame. Next morning, the stones were
carefully examined to see if any had been heat crazed or
displaced over-night. If this was the case it was presumed
that an individual represented by the stone must be
considered fay and incapable of survival for more than
twelve months. In certain villages children begged peat
from each householder with the exhortation, "G'e us peat t'
burn the witches!" When they had collected enough, they
added straw, furze and whatever other burnable matter they
could find and played the game of jumping the smoke and
flames. When the mass was reduced to ashes they scattered
them as widely as possible becoming completely
unrecognizable in the process.

In most places it was considered ill mannered to leave

the fire until the last ash was extinguished of its own
accord. As the last ember flickered out the master of the
fire would shout out, "May the cropped black sow take the
hindmost" or more recently "The De'il take the hindmost". It
can be suspected that some of these survivals point out
former ways of selecting victims for the bone-fire, which
once protected the community from the baneful influence of
the sidh and the baobh.

OIDHEAM, "end of the night", having secret meaning, a book.

This word is the same as ogham, above.

OIGH, virgin, aug, capable of increase; cf. og, young. The

root is aug, increase, the Lat. augeo. Virgins were
considered to have better powers of prognostication than
more experienced people.

OIGHEA MARA, a sea-maid, a morgan. See Daoine mara. The

renewable “virgins.” It is said that “Nymph goddesses were
much invoked in the region of Hadrian’s Wall.” Rice says
that “A relief from High Rochester shows a trio of nymphs
perhaps related to the cult of Coventina at Carrawbrough.
Derived from classical prototypes, this relief clearly
reflects the widespread cult of springs and wells in the
whole northern area, a cult extending from Roman times
down to the present.” This is not the entire cloth for the
Gaelic mermaids are connected with the open ocean. See An
Domahin and Mhorrigan.

OILBHREO, funeral pyre

OILLPHEIST, oillt, horror disgust, from the root pal, to

strike; pithir, thunderbolt; a mythic and metaphoric use of
beithir, beast. Beasts that created earthquakes and faults
by swimming through the earth. In a late legend Saint
Patrick excommunicated one of these horned serpents which
cut its way to the sea creating the river Shannon. On its
way it swallowed a piper, but his playing so discomforted
the beast he spit him out on the last headland.

OILMELC, oillt, horror or disgust; mèil, bleating; the

bleating of the “sheep.” Descriptive of the first calving of
the year. An alternate name for the Quarter Day known as
the Imbolg.

OILPEIG, supernatural communication, telepathy. On North

Uist two quarrelling septs of Macdonalds brought in Ian
Murdock of Clanranald as an arbitrator. At Appeal Hill in
Griminish. Murdock made a somewhat lop-sided judgement
but as he was walking home encountered the baobh named
Ni'n Ruairi (separate entry). She appeared to him as a young
woman milking a cow. Seeing her he noted, "That's a fine
cow you have there, I hope she will give you all the milk you
wish." To this the lass made the enigmatic reply, "If
justice were like this cow and her milk, it could be seen."
Bemused the bachuill-carrier walked away but was soon
surrounded on two sides by hostile-looking cattle. To avoid
them he attempted to wade a ford, but soon found himself
struggling "in an ocean of milk." Understanding something
of ogsanna he put out a call to the milk-maid, who he
thought to be the source of his troubles, saying "May there
never be limit to the drought for you." In his own head, he
heard the reply, "May there never be a limit to justice for
you." "He knew then where he had gone astray (in his
rendering of the law) and immediately the flood of milk
began to subside." He returned to re-convene the Appeal
Court of Cnoc an Uma, and there he reversed his decision in
favour of Clan Ferguson; thus perhaps the saying, "tha e
limeach talmas a mhiontadh," roughly, "no one can deny the
good sense of a fresh and wiser judgement."

OIMAIN MHOR, the great Quarter-Day game of shinty.

Iomain, the driving of cattle; tossing, driving, going around.
Such games were once a part of magical druidic ritual.

OINID, a fool, Ir. oinmhid, EIr. oinmit, from oin + ment,

foolish + in the mind. The feminine termination gives
oinnseach, a foolish woman, a Quarter-Day victim. Note the
next entry.

OINIGH, OINIDH, magnaminous, generous, liberal, a

prostitute.

OIRBSEN. Alternate name for Manann mac Ler. Also the

ancient name for Lough Corrib, County Galway, where he is
said to have been drowned by his enemies.

OIRTHIR, border, coast, the east. OIr. airther; oir, at the

edge (of the world), tir, land. All territories east of the
Celtic Isles. As opposed to erin, the west lands.

OISINN, a corner, Ir. isinn, the temple. “The cornerstone.”A

son of Fionn mac Cumhail and Sadb, the daughter of Boabd
Dearg. The greatest poet and warrior of the Féinn. He
married Eibhir of Sunshine Country and by her had Osgar.

After the defeat of the Feinn, Oisin was standing

with his father on the shores of Loch Lena, when they saw
riding along the strand a maiden on a snow white steed, like
those seen in the kingdom of Manann. It was said that she
wore a dark brown mantle that had the look of silk, and that
the material was set with stars of metallic red gold. She
wore a golden crown on her head and a crest of gold nodded
on her horse’s head, while his hoofs were shod with silver.
When she had come near Fionn asked her name, and she
responded saying, “I am Nèamh (Heaven, the Scared Grove),
she of the Golden Hair, and what brings me here is the love
of this man Oisin.” Turning to Oisin she asked if he was
ready to depart with her to her father’s land in the west,
and he replied, “That I will, and to the ends of the world if
thou wish it!” And it was said that he cared no more for
earthly things so vital was the fairy spell which she
projected. Then the two men stood transfixed as she spoke
of Tir Tairnigri, the “Land of Promise.” Afterwards Fionn
tried to recall all that was said on that breathless morning,
and recalled that what had passed went something like this:

Delightful in promise is this land beyond all

dreams,
Fairer than any thine eyes have ever seen.
There all year about fruit falls from the tree,
And all the year long the bloom is on the flower.

There with wild honey drip the forest trees;

The stores of wine and mead shall never fail.
Nor pain nor sickness known the dweller there,
Death and decay come near him never more.

The feast cloys not, of chase none tire,

Nor music ceases though forever through the
halls;
The gold and jewels of the Land of Youth
Outshine every treasure of this world of men.

Thou shall have horses of the sigh-breed.

Thou shall have hounds that run down the wind;
A hundred chiefs shall follow thee in war,
A hundred maidens sing thee to thy sleep.

The crown of sovranty thy brow shall bear,

 And by thy side a magic blade shall hang,
And thou shalt be lord of all the Land of Youth
And Lord of Neamh who wears the golden crown.

Before any further words could pass, Neamh turned her

sith-horse in the direction of the setting sun, shook the
bells of the bridle, took up her man with her strong left
arm, and fled down the wind. Although Oisin was never
again seen by his father his association with men was not
at an end. It is written that when the white horse of the sea
reached the western ocean, it ran lightly upon that great
plain away from Ireland. As they approached the distant
sun,, it shone more fiercely, and the riders passed into a
yellow haze in which Oisin lost all sense of time and place.
At that, dream-like images floated by on either side:
towers and palace gateways ebbed and flowed, and once a
hornless deer-like animal chased by a white hound with one
red ear was seen. Again, the travellers saw a young maid
ride by on the water upon another white sea-horse, her left
hand bearing a golden apple. After her, came a young
horseman on a third white horse, his purple cloak floating
soundlessly behind him on the wind. Oisin asked Neamh
who these persons were and where they journeyed, but the
golden-haired one warned him that such questions were
dangerous, and that it was better for passers-by to ignore
the phantoms they perceived on the way to the Land of
Youth.

In the Land itself, Oisin was the hero in many

adventures as his princess had promised: He once rescued a
beautiful maiden from the keep of an evil Fomor and begat
several male children by the princess of that land including
the famed Plur na mBan, the “Flower of Women.” After
what seemed to him to be three weeks of intensive sensual
delights, Oisin expressed his wish to be returned to Ireland
so that he could visit his father and his old comrades.
Neamh agreed on the promise that he would eventually
return to the west, but she cautioned him that things might
not be exactly as he had left them. With that she made him
the loan of a white horse, strongly suggesting that he
remain mounted on her while in the land of men. In Ireland,
he found nothing of the Féinn or the world he had known and
at last came to the suspicion that several hundred years of
time had elapsed in what had seemed to him less than a
month. Seeking to help some workers remove a stone from a
field, he fell upon the earth, and immediately aged. In
Christian versions of the tale it was said that Oisin met
and was entertained by Saint Patrick but he was never
converted to the new religion, and presumably returned to
Tir Tairnigri when he died.

OITEAG SLUAGH, oiteag, breeze, puff of wind; sluagh,

sluaigh, (pron. slew or slough), people, OIr. slôg, Cy. llu,
people of the god Llew, corresponding with the Gaelic sun-
god Lugh. The root lug, to swallow, great eaters, giants,
“aerial hosts... the spirits of men who have died. They travel
about the air after the fall of night, and particularly about
midnight.” Similar to the “Unsely (Unsilly, i.e. dangerous)
Court” of the Scottish lowlands. “You’d hear them going in
fine weather against the wind like a covey of birds...They
fly about in great clouds up and down the face of the world
like the starlings.” The “Unsely Court” of the Scottish
lowlands. See sluagh.

OL, OOL, drink, drinking, OIr. oul, drinking from the root po,
to drink, the Lat. poto, and the Eng. potable, drinkable, same
as Eng. ale, A drink taken at religious festivals and as a
prelude to battle. See next entry.

OLACH, a male castrated after ccommitting adultery,

champion, hero, giant, eunuch. One trained to a set purpose,
hospitable, liberal, beautiful, of low rank.
OLATHAIR, OOLATHAIR, Allfather, Ale-father; ol, drink,
drinking, ale from Norse ol, the English ale. Olach, a
hospitable person, a dispenser of ale. The creator-god, also
called Don. The equivalent of the Norse Juulvater who is
Odin. The source of the English Father Christmas. The word
is related to ollamh, see below.

OLC MIOSA, olc, bad; miosach, fairy. OIr. olcc, c. Lat.

ulciscor, revenge, ulcus, a wound, Eng. ulcer; miosguinn,
envy, malice, based on the Celtic mit, the Gaelic mith, an
obscure or retiring person; mithean, weak, crazy; mithleann,
sportive, fully of playfulness. One of the Daoine sidh or
Daoine mara.

OLLAMH, a learned man at the apex of his craft, art or

profession, a doctor. OIr. ollam from the root oll, great.
The modern Gaelic for professor. The first to bear this title
was the sun god Lugh who came to Tara seeking employment
and was only hired on when he made it apparent that he was
"the master of all crafts." This name was also given to the
son of Dalbaeth, a grandson of Ogma.
OLLAMH RI DAN, who the Romans called the filidh. A
graduate or “docotor in poetry.” This gentleman had thirty
inferior poets as attendants. These bards haed hereditary
lands and titles which were hereditary within their
families.

OLLAMH FODHLA. According to some records the eighteenth

Irish king, a successor to the first Milesian king Eremon.
Other sources suggest he may have ruled much later (714
B.C.) In any case he is recognized as the founder of formal
political bodies and the originator of a system of codified
laws. he was the founder of the first great feast at Tara,
which was originally held once in three years. He is known
to be interred at Tailltinn, or Telltown in County
Westmeath.

OM, OIr. omun, fear, dread; uamhunn, horror, to be filled with

uncomfortable awe. ""A mysterious entity who appears only
in proverb is "Om" of whom it is said, "Om is most active in
his morning." This phrase is used by anyone faced with a
chore he wants to put off until much later in the day. Seems
to correspond with Amadan na briona, the “Fiery Fool” of
Irish mythology.

ONFHADH, a blast, a storm, the raging of the sea, Ir. anfadh.

from the earlier an + feth, “excess + wind,” the root being
ve to blow from the elemental wind-god Ve. Lat. aer, Eng.
air, Lat. ventris, the Eng. wind.

OONA, OONAGH. The wife of Fionnbharr, relegated to the

position of “queen of the Gaelic fairies,” in popular
folklore. She and her mate lived in the sidh of Meadha, five
miles west of Tuam, Ireland. They had seventeen sons.

ORC TREITH, A lord’s boar. The name applied to the son of a

king. The Celtic peoples admired the boar for his strength
and ferocity and often used his figure as a decorative
element for shields and helmets. Note also the ancient
tribal name Orcoi. Thus perhaps Indse Orc, the “Island of
 Orcs,” and the islands now called the Orkneys. The ancient
name was i nOrcaib, “among the Orcs.” In modern Gaelic it
is represented as Arcaibh.

ORBISEN, “Young Bird of Increase.” An alternate name for

Manann mac Ler. This was the ancient name for Lough
Corrib, County Galway, where tradition claims that Manann
met his death by drowning.

OR, gold. “Many remarkable cures are resorted t, such as

healing sore eyes, by putting gold rings in the ears, by
rubbing them with jewels of pure gold and by repeating
certain rhymes.” 1

OR-CHEARD, goldsmith, or, gold, the English ore. A metal

preferred by smiths of the Daoine sidh who could not, or
would not, work in iron.

ORC-TRIATH. The “King of Boars,” a “possession” of the

goddess Bridd, daughter of Dagda. See as Torc Trwyth in
Welsh mythology. An animal which could be hunted but
never taken. Magh Treitherne in Ireland was named for this
animal. This beast along with the oxen Fea and Femen,
symbolized the destructive potential of the Otherworld. The
totem-animal of the sun-god Lugh.

“Traces of totemism can be seen in the tribal or clan

names of the Picts...The name of the Orkney Islands,
Orcades, is undoubtedly Keltic, in Irish literature the
islands are called Inse Orc, Isle of the Orcs, i.e. Boars.”
(Gordon Childe, Prehistory of Scotland). The boar was the
cult animal par excellence of the Celts. These people
favoured pork above all other meats and considered it to be
the preferred diet of their deities. The Gaels considered the
boar-hunt to be above all other sports, and the hunt for an
Otherworld creature is a favourite them of their mythology.
It is noteworthy that pigs are supposed to have been

1The Celtic Magazine, Jan. 1898, p. 98.

introduced to Ireland by the gods, or by the Tuatha daoine,
from a western Otherworld. Magical destructive pigs and
legendary boars are common in Irish tales. Thus we hear of
Torc Triach ri torcraide diata Mag Treitherne, the same
“Orc-Triath” mentioned above, “the king of boars, from
whom Mag Treitherne is named.” A similar mighty creature
is seen in Failbhe Finnmaisech, “a black, shapely, dusky
swine,” blue-black in colour. grey, horrible, without ears,
without tail, without testicles, with a back so high plump
wild apples could have been impaled on each of the
bristles.” See muicce gentliuchta, for notes on the female
of this species.

ORAIN COISRIGEADH AN AODAICH, songs at the consecration

of cloth.

ORAIN A’ COINNLEACHADH AN AODAICH, songs for the folding

of cloth.

ORAIN A SINEADH ‘S A’ BASLACHADH AN AOIDAICH,

“stretching and clapping songs,” used in the waulking of
cloth to make certain the product was of even breadth.

ORAIN SHUGRAIDH, the “frolic songs,” to give maidens the

chance of recognizing or disavowing a potenntial lover.

ORAIN TEANNACHAIDH, “tightening songs,” sung to “break

the back of the days work!”

ORAIN TEASACHAIDH, “heating-songs.” Slow songs intended

to give the women time to work into the rhythms of the day.

ORD FIANNA, ord, a hammer, ard, high, raised up, increase,

Eng. hard, hurt.
The “hammer of Fionn (variously pronounced feeun, een,
eeun etc.) Campbell thought this might connect the god-hero
with the Norse god Thor but this is generally taken to have
been an assembly whistle which the leader of the Feinn
carried. When it was blow, the sound could be heard pver all
of Ireland.
ORIEL, also seen as AIRGIALLA, a “subject people.” the
equivalent of Tuatha airthech. The kingdom of Oriel included
the modern counties of Armagh, Monaghan, Tyrone and
portions of Fermanagh and Derry.

ORNA. Ogma passed through the second Battle of Magh

Tuireadh and in it slew the giant named Indech, the
Fomorian son of the prime goddess Domnu. After the battle
he claimed the sword called Orna which had been held by the
Fomorian king named Tethra. It had the capacity to speak
recounting all the killings it has performed. With the
passing of the elder gods of the earth Ogma is supposed to
have retired into side Airceltrai.

ORRAG, ORRAGANAS, wonder-working by evil spirits, orag,

a sheaf of corn; anam, soul. Physical manipulation of
objects by nature-spirits, God or the gods, when in a
malevolent mood. Vulcanism, flood, explosion, the
disappearance of objects, storms of wind, fire or water,
earthquakes, etc.

ORAN, a song, especially a eulogy in verse, from the original

amhran.

ORLAS GUN LOCAS, "golden glitter," words without

substance. The trickery of wordsmiths; kings, clerics,
politicians and salesmen.

ORRA, ORTHA, ORR, OR, a charm or incantation. Ir. orrtha, a

prayer or charm, EIr. orthain, a prayer typically in verse
from the Latin orationem, the English word oration.

OSA, trump, gaining an advantage using sorcery, osag, blast,

breeze, from ve, the wind. Notice that Ve was one of the
triad of elder gods of Norse mythology. He was the son of
the immortal god Borr and the giantess Bestla, the others
being identified as Lokki and Vili. He was present at the
creation of man, bestowing upon him the gift of motion and
the five senses.
OSAAIL, successful divination. See osa, above; ail, to
better, to harness.

OSAGAIL, unsuccessful divination, gaill, surly. “The

divination of strangers.”

OSCAR, leap, bound, guest, traveller, a ruinous fall,

champion. See next.

OSCARACH, OSCARRA, OSGAR, bold, fierce, Ir. oscar, a

champion, from Osgar son of Ossian. Perhaps derived from
the ON. Asgeirr, the "spear of the gods," after Asa or Odin.
Os, deer; car, lover. Men who held power cohabited with
the sovereign bride of Ireland and one of these was the
Fenian hero named Osgar, the “Deer-kin.” This name was
given to him because his grand-mother was the shape-
changing deer-woman named Sadb.

He was described as the mightiest warrior of all the

Féinn, a man with a heart, ”like twisted horn sheathed in
steel.” As a youth he was physically uncoordinated, so that
the Féinn usually refused to take him on their expeditions.
One day, however, he followed the troop, and found them
falling back before their enemies. He seized a piece of
wood and went into a battle frenzy in which he killed two
opposing kings and his own friend Linné . After that, he
was given command of a battalion which was given the
name “The Terrible Broom,” because it swept all enemies
before it. Osgar lived to hear of the departure of his father
Oisin for the west, and saw the death of Fionn mac Cumhail.

Some say that his grandfather was killed putting

down an internal revolt, but others claimed that he was not
killed but retired to a long sleep in a cavern, from which he
would rise when some great terror fell upon the future of
his people. In any event the Feinn were now opposed by the
new high-king. His daughter, Sgeimh Solais, the “Light of
Beauty,” was about to be wed to the son of the king of the
Dési. The Fiann demanded their usual tribute of twenty
ingots of gold for “travelling expenses,” so that they might
attend the ceremony, but the king refused calling upon clann
Morna to help him break the power of this great private
army.

Cairbre had personal command of the Morna, while the

Fiann , who were largely drawn from clann Bascna , marched
under Osgar. The two men met in single conflict to their
mutual destruction. It was claimed that Fionn afterwards
appeared upon the battlefield “in a ship” to lament the
death of his grandson. This can only have been the craft of
Manann mac Ler, which could sail the furrows of the earth
as easily as it crested the waves of the ocean. When all
was over it was said that there was hardly a man, or a boy,
left alive in Ireland, but whatever the losses of Cairbre he
had his posthumous wish for the Fiann na h-Eireann were
gone forever.

After Oisin’s departure for the Otherworld, his post

of chief bard was filled by Caoilte, the “Thin man,” a cousin
of Fionn. In some of the tales he is given as the warrior
who struck down Ler when the Fiann assisted Midir in his
war against the northerners and Boabbd Dearg. After the
destruction of the Fionn he was forced to take refuge in a
souterrain of the Daoine sidh. In a late Christian
embellishment Caoilte , like Oisin, was forced to return to
the world of men so that he could meet and be influenced by
Saint Patrick.

OS-CRABHACH, superstitious, os-crabhadh, superstition.

OSSAR. The hound of Mac Da Tho, also known as Ailbe.

Coveted by Mebd and Conchobhar it chased Ailill’s chariot
and was killed by his charioteer.

OSD, an inn, hostel; Perhaps from OFr. hoste. Retreats for

men who were physically or spiritually injured. They were
supposedly inviolate.